Connecting School and the Multilingual Home

This book emphasises the importance of engaging multilingual families in school life to support students’ academic achievement and overall wellbeing. Although the book examines rural settings and the needs of rural educators and families, the information is of use to all educators aiming to support multilingual students and families.

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This book examines the educational gaps that multilingual students in rural communities experience. It argues that responsive, successful relationships between schools and multilingual families are a crucial aspect of all educators’ work and that no single strategy will work for all families. Rural multilingual family engagement involves building meaningful partnerships and relational trust, based on significant knowledge of families' cultures and language repertoires. Educators can reframe their work by learning from families and building on the strengths of multilingual families, which are too-often overlooked in school policies and educator practices. This is the first book to focus specifically on rural school settings. However, the conceptual framework of equity and linguistically responsive pedagogy are applicable across settings for educators who wish to support their multilingual students and families.